Maine is a nice place to paddle and the summers are nice (I grew up next door in New Brunswick) but man, there are so many people that head up from New York and places on the weekend.
Having just hit my 30th July in Maine, l have to put in a modification to the complaints about crowds.
Yes, southern Maine down by Kittery and pretty much anywhere south of Portland can be quite the scene in summer. The water is warmer and it is an easier drive from NY and MA.
But midcoast and up the water is colder, you start hitting coastal towns that are dry and much changes. I can go a week in Muscongus Bay from where l stay without seeing any other kayak on the water at all. If l go by certain easily accessible islands l might bump into someone else on the beach. The launches in this area often have a few cars with with racks but l may never see the boats.
(Later add - except rec boats in this Cove - the place has a couple)
Penn Bay is more crowded at the launches, probably more so now with the Old Quarry campground gone. And yes this time of year you can bump into crowds in Stonington archipelago. But there is a smaller lovely archipelago just a bit west where you might see two other kayaks. (At least in the past - the loss of the Old Quarry campground may have changed this. Haven’t paddled out of there this season yet.)
Boothbay Harbor can also be a crowded place to launch from, that said not sure l have ever seen more than a few kayak racked cars at Ocean Point just one point over.
There are areas of Maine that are too crowded for my taste, and l have to drive an hour and change further to get there. But in a dry town, meaning no bars or motels, in midcoast it is not terribly honky tonk.
The nearest hospital also has one floor, which goes back to a further set of criteria that would put me to Portland to retire,
I live here year round and if you avoid the coast there is wonderful kayaking alone… We are headed to Moosehead again and we can paddle all day and see nobody. And if you go east of Ellsworth there are no hordes… And great paddling. Acadia attracts tourists because to those from away that IS Maine. Locals know way better! I would rather go to the dentist without novocaine than go to Acadia right now.
South of Portland is Mass North. Similarly afflicted. Seems that New Yorkers are not coming on the weekends! It is 360 miles from my house to NYC. Its is hard enough from Boston. We had AMC club members from NY get to our AMC camp in Georgetown ME late Friday night and they were spent… The folks from Boston just over wrought. In two days they were finally relaxed… just in time to go home.
The housing problem though… prices have doubled in the last year in many areas. Realtors come to our door begging us to sell. Yeah…no.
I lived in Milford just south of new haven CT and also live in So Cal but have visited washington / oregon too.
Maine is one of may all time favorite places. In the summer the green mountains going stright into the ocean are beautiful. They have wild blueberry fields in the summer, bar harbor is stunning. Its cold though. Really cold in the winter and cold water all year. The beauty about makes up for the cold though.
Another thing to consider is the vastly different personality types in CT/MA/ME vs OR/WA.
I am a native midwester and developed a passionate, burning, flaming hate for east coast A-holes that are 50+% of the population out there. Boston is the worst for this. NY I actually didnt have any problems, except for the highly arrogant NY drivers. If you were ok with the aholes in the past you’re probably ok, but I literally moved to socal to get as far away from east coasters as possible. Its truly a horrible, horrible culture IMO.
Another strike on CT is their very high property tax rates. in the midwest and west, I am used to property tax rates of about 1%, 2% at most. CT easily had 3 and 4% tax rates, with some as high as 7.5% (the dump known as municipal hartford) so you have to be very careful about which city you buy in. Think about that - In hartford a 300k house pays ~22k/yr in property tax alone. No wonder people are leaving.
Washington and Oregon are certainly gray and have their own problems with wild fires/smoke, housing costs, high cost of living, homelessness, and political nuts on both sides, but overall I would choose anywhere in the northwest over anywhere in the northeast in large part because of the people and society at large. Plus you get to paddle year round, have cheap flights to Hawaii, and have excellent beer choices.
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Last place I’d want to live is CA, WA, or NYC.
I’m sure some tucked away place in CA or WA would be Ok. In general no way to much rain in WA and nuts.
It is really hard to judge all of a state or area of the country by their big cities. I live in NW PA up on the great lakes and it wouldn’t bother me at all if we donated Philadelphia to whoever wanted it. In exchange the people on the western half of NY are the same folks that live here and could join us. I know they would be happy with that.
Cost of living is a biggie. Some of the small towns here are pretty easy to fall in love with. I sometimes feel like I’m stuck in the 60s here and Andy and Barney will come walking down main street any minute. I’m happy with the kind of paddling we do here and I guess if I wanted excitement I could buy an ocean boat and take it up on Lake Erie. I’m happy moving along 2 MPH drowning worms though. Not to mention our total tax bill on our home is $350/year. That’s another 60s perk of small town living in older towns. 
I’ll throw in a vote for southern Rhode Island (“South County” for the locals, but don’t try to look that name up on a map). Lived there for 11 years in grad school and beyond before relocating to Florida (I cannot tolerate the cold any more). Lots of great paddling, a nice mix of rural and urban, good restaurants, lots of stuff to do close by. I never owned a house there so not sure of the tax rate but I never heard any of my homeowner friends complaining like the poor folks in CT do.
Weather isn’t bad. Winter is comparatively mild and some winters are snow free. In 11 years there we had 3 major snow storms. Spring can be cold and damp if you are near the coast. Summer and fall are the best - warm, rarely hot especially near the coast.
I am laughing at some of what you wrote. Coastal Maine is not much colder than CT. ( I lived in CT many years). Inland Maine is somewhat colder but still tolerable Bar Harbor is the pits except in Dec Jan and Feb where there is good pizza at the sports bar on Cottage St.
In Maine we don’t take kindly to avocado toast. Yes going to HI is a project. Going to Iceland is not. And we in Maine have the highest per capita count of craft breweries in the nation. We do paddle year round, Salt water does not freeze easily.
Starting the beer wars!
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OPer is talking about moving up from Georgia. Any place being talked about is going to be at least interesting for them paddling in winter.
Just checked quickly and got this - Water temps off Washington coast - Ocean Water Temperatures for Washington - Current Results
A quick look for info on near shore coastal Maine waters shows them to be a bit different but probably not enough to care about. Similar clothing etc required.
Near Shore Water Temperature Normals - Maine and New Hampshire
However, I regularly hear from people who have lived in the Pacific NW that they feel it is close to a year round paddling season. I went looking at air temperatures, and found a marked difference between Maine and the Pacific NW. Maine is colder in winter. People can look for themselves. Having resolutely paddled thru the winter even when it meant hunting for open water in our earlier years, it is a different experience when the air is a good bit chillier. Regardless of the temperature of the water - frankly the difference between 42 and 36 degree water is questionably important. They are both too cold to spend a lot of time swimming in even with dry suit and layers, both test the limits of gloves and pogies.
So for someone who is accustomed to paddling for a lot of the year without having to account for harsh air temperatures, regional diffs could matter.
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In NW WA paddling year ‘round is easy as long as you have the proper clothing and knowledge.
I paddled 100 days/yr there, mostly right from home. In the years prior to living there (when I lived in the CO Front Range), I eked out 100 days/yr but it took a lot of commitment. Now I’m down to half that, as we have very few decent venues in SW CO, and between the weather and administrative closures, the season is really short.
Still, in WA I took time off from kayaking, in December and January. I hate wearing gloves while paddling, and that’s the most wintery part of winter. It’s also nice to just concentrate on other things for a while.
If I lived in ME, I would take the entire winter off from paddling. Maybe do some x-c skiing instead.
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The OP should learn about climate trends in the selected states, not last week’s weather. From the Maine Climate Council:
“Maine’s annual temperature has increased 3.2 degrees F since 1895, and extreme heat days are expected to be two to four times more frequent by 2050. Warming has shortened Maine’s winters and lengthened the summers by two weeks on average over the last century, a trend that’s expected to continue as temperatures increase. . . . Recent ‘ocean heat waves’ have occurred in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans and is beginning to lose its subarctic characteristics.” Etc.
Whew. Well. Where to start? The usual trite response is, “There are good and bad people everywhere.” I’ll skip that and tell the truth: yes, the New England personality is very different from the Midwest and Pacific states. Moreover, each New England state has a different personality.
But it’s interesting to see what happens when you strip away politics (by avoiding talking about it). My experience: New Yorkers are warm people. (Not a New England state but you mentioned New York.) For a dose of human warmth I like to talk to people on the streets of New York City. Bostonians: Just fine, I think. New Hampshire: Coldest people in the U.S. and proud of it. New Hampshirites have honed aggression to a fine art. NHPR had a 1-hour show about this once and people were calling in to brag about what they had done to their neighbors. Vermont: zero problems. Rational, intelligent, nice folks for the most part. Maine: Very wide social make-up (like NH and VT). I find Mainers very likeable. They seem to love their state, which could account for their cheerfulness. What impresses me the most is how they jump in to help a visitor before they’re asked. If your car breaks down in Maine, you’re not going to be left stranded without help. I’ve been the recipient of heroic acts of altruism, like the guy who got together a group of friends who hoisted the engine out of my car, fabricated a new motor mount, and installed it—on the evening before Thanksgiving. Then would not accept any payment. All because he saw me peering under my hood in a parking lot looking perplexed. At Maine state campgrounds the folks in the office are incredibly helpful. In my experience, Maine personality transcends politics, whereas in New Hampshire the local personality is directly related to politics.
I would have no hesitation moving to Maine with respect to the state personality. But I would say the same about Oregon—incredibly nice and helpful people.
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This too is changing rapidly with climate change. I’m a New England lake paddler. One year a few years ago I paddled in every month except February because the lakes were ice free for 11 months. I paddled on Christmas Day that year and on New Year’s Day I paddled, biked, and hiked on the same day. Could have skied too if I had gotten up earlier.
Oh I am well aware of the warming of the Gulf of Maine which is warming exponentially… Lobsters may be moving north out of the state and oyster farming is exploding.
. I do believe in global and local warming. Now as to warming… its cool again ( upper 50’s) and Elsa is here bathing us in much needed rain.
We have been blessed not to have suffered PNW scorching heat this year. I am afraid that anomaly will become the norm
I have lived in the PNW almost all my life. We kayak year round out here, OK maybe we snowshoe and ski for 2 months in the Cascades but the rest of the time we can get on the water. It is generally mild and depending on where you live the famous PNW rain is less. I live in the San Juan Islands and the paddling is epic. We have the least amount of rain-fall in WA. In the summer we do 1-2 trips up the BC Canada coast (When the boarder is open). Lots of lakes to choose from too. Instead of Canada we are doing 5 days on Ross Lake in the N. Cascades this summer. Ive been to Maine but found it over developed and crowded in the summer. Never paddled in CT but have boated the length of Long Island Sound. The east is beautiful in its own way with the soft shoreline and salt marshes, but I like the dramatic ruggedness of the PNW and the access to tons of wilderness.
Paddle-on Lads
Yes, my liver shudders at the thought of going up to Maine. 
If your impression was that Maine is overcrowded you just joined the hordes of people from away that say Yes I loved Maine. I went to Bar Harbor. ( the one place I NEVER recommend in the summer! )
Which is so not representative of the State… I think there is a paddling trail in the PNW though I have not done it. The Maine Island Trail is a water trail about 400 miles long with 250 wild camping island.
What I know of the PNW is that I 5 and Seattle are just nightmares. North of Bangor we can play hockey on I 95. Or whatever seasonal sport is current.
We are going to Moosehead Lake… Its about 40 miles long and irregular. and there is very little boat traffic /development.
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Add to my comments: I agree that there is a lot about Maine that is crazy beautiful. I bet the winters are amazing. Bring your ice skates and XC-skis. We sailed our boat from VA all the way to Nova Scotia and way “Down East” there was tons of empty bays and fantastic coastline. We paddled our kayaks everyday on some foggy stretch of rocky coastline. Lots of tide exchange and angry lobster men flying about in their supercharged lobster boats. We liked Rockland and Castine. There was lots of amazing houses to look at on the shoreline.
On second thought, I agree with this, all the tech workers clogging up the freeway with their Tesla’s. Real Estate prices through the roof. Seattle is jammed with people and there are more moving here every day for some strange reason. The whole region is getting built out, clear-cutting the forests, polluting the streams and paving it allover. Ice cold sea water surging in every inlet and then there is the constant rain falling like some sort of black plague. Probably not a good idea to move to the PNW. Those dark winter days are so depressing anyway, it can drive you insane. Its not worth it, save yourself, don’t come here you will regret it.
Maine is not crazy crowded everywhere along the coast in the summer, and starting midcoast you get all the rugged shorelines you want. I have been here in midcoast for a couple of weeks and have yet to see proper sea kayaks other than on the roof of a car. A few rec boats from where l rent, they crawl the shore close in.
One sea kayak was on the roof of a car at the nearest general store yesterday, three sea kayaks were car topped in Rockland near a watering hole yesterday afternoon.
The question mark w Maine, which Jim and l looked at seriously when we considered retiring to midcoast, were winter arts activities and hospital scale. The climate is very similar to home. Those were not. Hence would have been Portland,
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